On Sunday March 26, 2017 the Denver Nuggets faced the New Orleans Pelicans in a late-season, crucial matchup. The Nuggets had just won nine of their last 13 coming out of the All Star Break. Their offense was nearly unstoppable, easily beating the Indiana Pacers on the road to keep hold of the 8th seed in the NBA Western Conference.

The Nuggets proceeded to – inexplicably – lose to a Pelicans team that had already faded out of the playoff race. Not only did they lose, they were blown out at home.

Then the Nuggets traveled to Portland to face a Trail Blazers team that was neck and neck with them in the playoff race. Jusuf Nurkic had been traded prior to the NBA Trade Deadline and had helped the Blazers resurgence. They were tied with the Nuggets for the 8th spot at the time and this was a must win game. The Nuggets did not win and collapsed in the fourth quarter to fall into 9th place in the Western Conference.

The Blazers game was the start of an odd five game road trip. The Nuggets’ next game was in Charlotte against a struggling Hornets team. Again, the Nuggets collapsed in the fourth quarter and lost their third straight game. Essentially this sealed the Nuggets’ fate in the Western Conference playoff race, even though they weren’t officially knocked out of the playoffs until their home loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 9th.

The Nuggets were a young team and it was the very first playoff race for a majority of the roster. Learning how to win in pressure situations is part of the NBA and the assumption was that this was the learning experience the Nuggets needed to “take the steps” into the playoffs the next season.

With 12 games left in the 2017-18 Nuggets season history is repeating itself in the most unfortunate way. Deja Vu you might say. Two inexplicable losses to tanking teams (Dallas Mavericks on March 6th and last night against the Memphis Grizzlies) have left the Nuggets a full game and a half out of the eighth spot in the Western Conference playoff race. It feels so similar to the previous season, even though there have been roster changes; the addition of Paul Millsap primary among them.

Of course, with the caveat that they are not yet out of the playoff picture, with five games left on their season-longest six game road trip Nuggets fans are left wondering if this team as currently constructed/coached can ever make that push to the playoffs. Too many of the same mistakes from last year are happening again, many of which were essayed by T.J. McBride in his last column.

I’d like to focus on one, however. It is the problem that reared it’s ugly head last year and is biting the Nuggets again this season. It is becoming apparent that Nuggets head coach Michael Malone doesn’t have a full grasp on how to best utilize burgeoning star Nikola Jokic. The player around whom the entire Nuggets orbit revolves. An enigma who is such an offensive basketball savant that it challenges preconceived notions about how to construct a modern NBA basketball team.

Two seasons in a row, Malone has let the reigns off of the Nuggets heavy play call offense that he prefers and unleashed a more “flow” offense under Jokic with minimal play calling (on December 15th 2016 and again this year on January 29th versus the Boston Celtics) . In both instances the team thrived on offense and won games simply because their offense was running like a Ferrari. On the other hand their defense fell to near last in the league as the Nuggets’ pace increased. Malone has struggled to find the right combination of defensive scheme coupled with that Ferrari-esque offense and he may not know how, period.

The last 10 games, the Nuggets have gone 5-5 and their offense (which carried them through February) has largely retreated back to it’s muddled confusion of the months leading up to the end of January. This isn’t the fault of the returning Paul Millsap, but rather the struggle of a coach who has an amazing offensive center who needs the ball to direct the offense like a quarterback. In his retreat to calling plays, Malone threw off the delicate balance the offense retained because he felt controlling the pace (NOT slowing the pace) will better incorporate Millsap and improve the defense.

That, needless to say, has not happened.

In reality, in both the 2017 and 2018 season’s the Nuggets down the stretch failures have been largely attributable to the blessing and the curse aspect of having a player like Nikola Jokic. The struggle to KNOW how best to use Jokic has become the cross to bear of Michael Malone and one wonders whether he will be able to figure it out in time to salvage the Nuggets’ season.

The clock is ticking and the Nuggets chances are dwindling. Both coaches and players need to take a deep look in the mirror and decide who they want to be. Otherwise the Nuggets’ identity crisis will go on and on until it reaches a breaking point.

Can the Nuggets break the cycle?